Correlation between Transabdominal Sonographic and Clinical Findings in Children with Sickle Cell Disease
Abstract
Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa where intraabdominal manifestations of the disease are common. Objective: To correlate transabdominal sonographic and clinical findings in children with sickle cell disease. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 400 SCD patients aged 1-15 years, conducted in the Radiology department of Jos University Teaching Hospital. Patients were scanned using Aloka 3500 Ultrasound machine with frequency transducer range 2-10MHz. The patient lies supine and a hypoallergic gel is applied over the abdomen and the intra-abdominal organs are then scanned and their measurement/morphology are then documented. Results: Normal sonographic findings were seen in 192 (48.0%) patients while 208 (52.0%) had various abnormal findings. Two hundred and ninety-seven (74.2%) patients had various clinical abdominal presentations while 103 (25.8%) had none. The commonest abnormal transabdominal ultrasonographic (TAUS) finding was hepatomegaly seen in 120 (25.2%) patients, autosplenectomy seen in 77 (16.2%) and hyposplenism seen in 5 (1.1%). Higher abnormal TAUS findings were noted in the older age groups 11-15 years with 69 (85.2%). Patients who had a history of blood transfusion had significant abnormal TAUS findings (p-0.001). Conclusion: Abdominal ultrasonographic imaging of patients with sickle cell disease revealed various abdominal abnormalities.
Keywords: Sickle Cell Disease, Ultrasonographic, Transabdominal
Downloads
Issue
Section
License
Terms and conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License apply to all published manuscripts. This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This licence allows authors to use all articles, data sets, graphics and appendices in data mining applications, search engines, web sites, blogs and other platforms by providing appropriate reference. The journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions and will retain publishing rights without restrictions.
A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning the validity of research is influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. We require that our authors reveal all possible conflicts of interest in their submitted manuscripts.
The Editor reserves the right to shorten and adjust texts. Significant changes in the text will be agreed with the Authors.